intergrating 2 flocks, help

[graciesmum]

Ok so I have a chicken area that is 44ft by 22ft, within this area I have the chicken palace (converted shed) 5ft by 6ft, a rabbit hutch and run, and a store bought coop/run, in the chicken palace I have 4 ex battery girls, and in the coop I have 2 11 week old cream leg bars, 1 10 week old lavender pekin, 1 7 week old lemon pekin roo, and 1 6 week old wc black polish, the 3 teenagers have been in the coop for 7 weeks, I introduced the youngest 2 to the teenagers around 3 weeks ago and they got on great, so when and how do I go about putting everyone together????? Any help would be really appreciated

 

[graciesmum]

day 2 and they are all foraging together woop woop

 

[graciesmum]

Any advice at all would be really appreciated, I have read different threads on here and foallowed the advice of putting the adolescent coop in there area, so any advice on actually pputting them together???

 

[Mrs. K]

it is still kind of a crap shoot. The old hens are on their home turf so negative 4, 5 chicks, various ages +5 sooo slightly ahead.

However, I think I would worry about the smallest, youngest chick. 6 weeks is pretty small so -1...... so even steven. If they have been exposed to each other, but separated by a fence..... might be slightly better odds.

Now if in that very large run, you have some pallets on cement blocks, another pallet leaned up against a wall, some tree branches, and a couple of roosts in the corners, and a couple of different water bowls and feeders. These make it hard for the older hens to keep them from keeping the young from eating and drinking, and give hideouts to the younger birds.

Then you might just be lucky enough to put them all together. A lot is going to depend on your older hens, and just because they might be meek with you, is no guarantee they will be nice to the chicks.

Mrs K

 

[graciesmum]

I have 4 different water stations, and will also have 3 feeding stations, I was thinking of intergrating the legbars now as they are very big, and leaving the other 3 till they are bigger, there are loads of places for the little ones to escape and hide, also my big girls don't roost, so there is a LG roost in the chicken garden, it has never been used, I think my new girls would use it

 

[Alaskan]

What you are thinking of sounds great....but I would be tempted to wait another week (or however long I could hold out) then introduce the new ones all at once.

The reason to introduce them all at once is that then there is just one giant pecking order fight, which then hopefully calms down, and everything is great. Of course, you never know, so keeping watch is a good idea.

But, if you introduce the older chicks now, then later you would be introducing just two little pullets to an established flock of 7, established, already very happy with the way things are.

I have tried, when possible to mess with all of their minds at once. So, the large established flock gets kicked out of their regular coop, and out someplace different for a couple of weeks, and the new pullets get the regular coop. Then, the established flock is returned to the regular coop. This is so confusing for the poor chickens, that squabbles are only minimal. Also, the older hens being put into the new pullets area helps too.

 

[graciesmum]

I would be putting my 2 legbars with my 4 ex battery girls, then that would leave me 2 bantam hens and 1 bantam roo, not sure if I should integrate the Pekins and the polish at all, as alot of people have said the bigger ones would pick on the bantams, and pull my polish feathers out, so am confused if I should even do it?, also I need to get the legbars out of the small coop because they are getting to big

 

[Alaskan]

I haven't had polish before....

I have housed bantams with large fowl, and it was fine. I did always watch out for my tiniest bantam, I had one lone D'uccle. I just watched her, and made sure she had places to go hide that she liked, and got food and water. My Cochin bantams and my Brahma bantams had no problems at all.

However, my bantams were always raised with large fowl, so that might make a difference.


But, remember, you can always pick a day when you have absolutely noting planned. Then toss the ones together you would like to have together, and just watch. There will be some squabbles and pecking, but if you see any true fights, just remove them again.

Don't stress so much... . Just go ahead and try something, stay to watch, if you don't like the way they interact, then separate them again.

You could even throw them all together for a few hours every time you have the time to watch them, and not leave them alone together until you feel confident about it.

 

[graciesmum]

This is what i did today lol, I bit the bullet this morning, I spent 4 hours in the garden today and left the juevenile coop open, I half closed the house door, so only the little ones could get in if they needed too, all my big girls ran straight into the coop to see if there was any food, but after about 20 mins everyone just got on with there day, the youngsters stayed around by the coop and didn't go far but there was no major squabbles they just kinda got on with there day

 

[Alaskan]

Oh how funny!



Yeah chicks!